Craig was rather impressed with our initial glimpses of Raindrop, a very pretty survival FPS which has been in slow development as a Source mod for many years. Now though it’s made the jump to Unity in order to materialise as a standalone project. The survival space is beginning to looks quite busy now, and Raindrop aims to stand apart by being “a surreal, environment driven, survival game that includes fully explorable levels with intuitive, complex puzzles.” An FPS puzzler and survival game? Does this see the FPS puzzle legacy of the past few years finally colliding with the survival genre?

This teaser looks really good and I’m looking forward to seeing more gameplay. However my Awkward-O-Tron was still detecting the influence of at least a couple of hours on a Media Body Language training course for the gentleman with the glasses here and there :) That said I would be a gibbering orangutan so well done dev guy

My problems with Reborn: excessive marketing talk, using set-pieces to show “we are gamers just like you”, the developer’s site: fancy, but without content. No gameplay video or screenshots, only concept art.

It all screams scam to me.

Even if they were able to get all the stuff done as they claim, the 200.000 $ that is their funding goal will surely not be enough. If you saw their Kickstarter video, please tell me what you think. Some folks in the Dtoid comments have voiced similar concerns, though, so I guess I’m not crazy.

Hyperlight Drifter had the best pitch video I have ever seen. The graphics were pretty, the music was amazing, and the video was wonderfully choreographed. I thought about backing it, but it became clear they already had more money than they knew what to do with.

Here on some other successes from this month alone:
Shantae – A platformer from a group of developers skilled at making platformers
Mighty No. 9 – A spiritual sequel from a legendary Japanese designer
Rebuild – turn-based zombie sim-city (from a successful series of flash games)
Sunless Sea – Underground Underwater exploration in a mix between Victorian and Cthonic mythos
River City Ransom Underground – A beat-em-up with a famous name
Project Phoenix (dubious about this one) – A JRPG with some famous hands and some pretty watercolors
The Fall – Story driven exploration of a dark world
Lords of Xulima – Ultima style open world exploration
Octopus City Blues – Exploration of a dark, thematic, and completely alien world that sells incredible reactivity
Neo-Victorian Skirmish Squad – A game where you dice battle mythical creatures at a finishing school
DC WWII: Europe 1944 – A realistic WWII flight Sim
Neverending Nightmares – An Edward Gorey horror explorer based of the creator’s OCD
Pulsar: 3D cooperative starship bridge controller game set in a randomized universe.

I list all these things just because I’m amazed at the novelty, beauty, and variety that is currently being funded by kickstarter right now. Every week when I look at them I see something new and interesting:link to rockpapershotgun.com

Taxi Journey, while beautiful, started a campaign where they came back with a lower funding total after missing the first time around, and offered little new footage. That is not exactly confidence inspiring. Blood Alloy wanted $15 for a 2D platformer shooter with dark, industrial art.

There are a ton of games that I want to get funded (like Terminus, Castle Breakers, Knite & the Ghost Lights (back this!), and Legend of the Lancer), and I think the lack of a kickstarter katchup on RPS really hurts struggling games. Even then, kickstarter is working the way it should. People are getting what they want and variety is increasing.

I am excited about certain Kickstarter projects. Many of them you already mentioned. I’m happy that RimWorld does so well…
Taxi Journey seemed similar to Machinarium to me. And I thought it was covered pretty well… before I read Oozo’s comment. Unlike, say Centration’s first video, I thought theirs always explained well what the game was gonna be.

I think every game features “Advanced enemy pathfinding and combat AI for realistic battles” but they really don’t.
They are not easy things to program for and develop. If there was some gameplay showing this (or any gameplay) I would back it instantly.

They have shown they are great environmental designers. Has any of their maps shown up in any Source mods? Be fun to take them for a spin in Garry’s Mod or CS:S.

Maybe I’m letting my excitement cloud my judgement – some people are questioning weather this game can even be done by the pour devs – but even when placed humid other interesting survival games this is the only one I find dripping with atmosphere. I think I’ll storm out of here, drop by their Kickstarter, and shower them with money.

Every time I see this game come up, it reminds me of another that was teased a year or so ago, but I cannot remember the name of. It was some kind of post apocalyptic puzzle game and was teased with a video of a large robot waking up along side the road in the middle of a deserted city. Anyone know what I’m talking about?

I look at a pitch like this, and I think “It could be brilliant, or it could end up completely forgettable”. So I don’t back them, I wait until they come out and see what the reviews say. Then I pay more if the reviews are good, rather than paying less for a game that may disappoint me.

Well, I though maybe people pondering the mysteries of Kickstarter might want to know that.

The problem with this attitude is that you potentially miss out on some fantastic games that never get made due to insufficient funding.

If you’re happy with the current crop of games, and happy to let the big distributors dictate what games get made, then Kickstarter is not for you. Which is fine.

For what it’s worth, I’m personally very happy with a less than 100% hit rate (actually, 33% would be fine) if it means the world gets to see a few brilliant gems that reinvigorate old genres, or invent new ones.